It will likely be a couple of weeks before that opinion is ready, said Mark Salley, communications director for the state health department.

Until now, health department officials said, it has been up to districts to decide which of two methods of parent consent to use.

The vast majority of schools use “passive consent” to notify parents about the survey. That means parents must sign and return a form to opt their children out of the survey.

Active consent, which is what last Friday’s informal opinion said is necessary, means that parents must sign and return a form before their children can be given the survey. In 2013, only 8 percent of schools that administered the survey required active consent.

The opinion requested by the health department will come from a different assistant attorney general, but like the opinion provided to the state board by Senior Assistant Attorney General Tony Dyl, is expected to be an “informal opinion.”

In other words, it will represent the legal opinion of the lawyer who wrote it and is not a formal ruling of the attorney general.

This tale of two opinions erupted after recent criticism from some parents and state board members about the survey’s parent notification methods and the explicit nature of some questions.